Posts from the ‘Unsolved Cases’ Category

Amber has naturally brown hair but was known to dye her hair lighter at times. According to one of the last people to have seen her alive, she had purchased hair-dye the day of her disappearance.

Amber Cates, then 16, was a teenage girl who grew up in Spring Hill, TN and moved frequently to several States including Georgia and Texas before ending back up in Tennessee where she settled down in a foster home.

According to family and friends, when Amber hit her mid-teens she started rebelling and hanging out with the wrong crowd. She would drink and even occasionally experimenting with drugs, so it wasn’t a surprise that when she went missing in 2004, police considered her just another runaway. However, many who knew the missing teen immediately knew this wasn’t the case.

On April 11, 2004, Amber was seen leaving her mother’s Maury County home with a male friend, James Gordon. She was supposed to go on a two-day Spring-break trip but when she failed to return a missing persons report was filed with Maury County Sheriff’s Department. Gordon was questioned and he told police that the two of them left her mother’s Tracy Lane home in his car, a gold Mazda. They stopped at a store so Amber could purchase hair-dye and then she met-up with another male friend, Ronald Inzurriaga, who is also known by his street name “California” Inzurriaga.

Authorities tracked down Inzurriaga in an Alabama prison where he was serving time for an unrelated case. He told them he picked up Amber and the two hung out for a short while and during that time the two stopped at a store where Amber purchased hair-dye and he dropped her back off in Columbia with another guy who he didn’t know.

MCSD were at a dead-end and brought in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help aid them in this case but despite the added help, this case remains unsolved.

Some reports say James Gordon became Amber’s legal guardian several days before she disappeared while other reports say the teen’s sister was her legal guardian.

Amber never used her Social Security account number

She had a driver’s license, but there’s been no record of any infractions.

Some websites list Amber Cates as “Endangered Runaway” but she is considered “Endangered Missing” by both the police, FBI and major missing children websites like NCMEC and Charlie Project.

Age-Progressed photo of what Amber Cates may look like at 22. She will be celebrating her 24th birthday in several days on 02/03/13
Date Of Birth: February 3, 1988
Age Then: 16 Age Now: 24
Height: 5’5″
Weight: 100-125 pounds
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Hazel
Race: Caucasian
Gender: Female

On August 14, 1986 Jeremy Bright, then, 14, went to the Coos County Fair in Oregon, and vanished off the face of the earth.

Fast forward…

Jeremy grew up in Myrtle Point, OR and that’s where his family and friends lived, but when his parents separated he and his sister moved a hundred miles away to Grants Pass, where his mother worked and attended school.

Every Summer the Coos County Fair rolls into Myrtle Point, Oregon. For many, it’s a weeklong celebration. To 14-year-old Jeremy Bright and his 9-year-old sister S’te (pronounced “Ess-tee”), it was one of the highlights of each year and they rarely missed it. Because distance would have been a problem, their stepfather, Orville “Ole” Gulseth of Myrtle Point, had offered to take them in for a week that summer but he would need to get approval from his mother, Diane Beatty, now 55.

Beatty said yes. Something she will regret for the next 25 years.

“He was here for a week during the fair,” said Beatty during a 2009 interview at her Eastside home as she pored over photos of her missing son from a time when Pac-Man and Van Halen were all the rage. “He was only here for a week. If I would have said, ‘No,’ about him coming up to the fair, I would still have him.”

“Instead of them veggin’ in Grants Pass for a week, while I worked and went to school, I thought that would be a great little trip for them,” “I have regretted it ever since.” said Beatty.

It was a Thursday on August 16, 1986 and Jeremy decided to bring his best friend, Johnny, with him to the fair. The two would go off while his little sister walked around the fair with their step-father.

Around 4:45pm., Jeremy made a long distance call to his mother to check in with her and to let her know that he was having a good time at the fair. She told Jeremy she’d be back in Myrtle Point in two days to pick him and his sister up.

Five hours later at 9:40 PM, Jeremy showed up at a local tavern owned by his grandmother. There he met his stepfather and asked to borrow some money. It was the last time Jeremy was ever seen by his family.

Two days later, Diane arrived in Myrtle Point as planned. She went to pick up Jeremy at his stepfather’s house, but her son never showed up:

“I went in and on the TV set was his house keys from our Grants Pass apartment and his wallet and his new watch that he told me he’d bought. I knew when I found those things that he was around somewhere because he wouldn’t leave without them.”

On Saturday night, Diane was worried enough to contact the police. At first, Sergeant Steve Dalton of the Coos County Sheriff’s Department believed Jeremy had simply run away:

“He did like the fair. There was the thought that perhaps he was hiding out, intending to leave with the fair people and I’ve explored that possibility in every way that I can think of. However in this particular case, I’ve talked to family members and friends of him that knew him well. And he was just not, from what I can learn, the type of kid who would have struck out on his own.”

On Sunday, August 17, 1986, the fair closed down. Myrtle Point was buzzing about Jeremy’s disappearance, and gradually, conflicting stories began to emerge. According to one rumor, Jeremy attended one of Myrtle Point’s many parties, and drank a beer laced with a powerful drug. Another story claimed that three older teenagers showed up at a local swimming hole and harassed Jeremy and his friends. According to Sergeant Dalton, this information came from a jailhouse informant:

“They subsequently took him to a cabin, maybe within ten miles of the Myrtle Point area, and attempted to nurse him back to health… he died as a result of that injury, either from loss of blood or from infection or what have you. That same source… indicated that his body would found within 200 feet of this cabin in a shallow grave.”

Police searched the area surrounding the cabin but found nothing. For Diane Bright, the rumors about her missing son were difficult to handle:

“All of them are hard to think about. Every time I’d hear a new one, I have nightmares for a week or so. The one that I hope is not what happened is one where he suffered for two weeks before he died and they buried his body, because the thought of him suffering for two weeks just makes me sick.”

Jeremy Bright has scars on his forehead and nose and a mole on his chin. The prime suspect in his disappearance recently died in prison, and there are no new leads. However the case is still open.

Age progressed photo of what Jeremy Bright may look like at age 33. He would be turning 41 this year.

Christina Roof was a 27-year-old woman living in Everett, Washington at the time she went missing. A few weeks prior to her disappearance, on March 2, 1996, Christina attempted to cross over the border from Washington state into Canada at the border crossing north of Lynden, Washington. Boarder control denied her access.

Exactly 3 weeks later, on March 23, 1996, Christina disappeared. She was last seen in Whatcom County, Washington. The following day, on the afternoon of 03/24/96 her silver 1986 Mazda was found abandoned at the end of Froberg Road, less than 300 yards south of the U.S. / Canadian Border. Later that same day a Canadian resident contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to report a distressed woman, who identified herself as Christina, who was in the street on Old Yale Road, British Columbia, Canada. By the time authorities got to Old Yale Road the woman was gone.

Christina’s vehicle and the area surrounding it was searched and no evidence of foul play was found. There was also no evidence to indicate that the missing woman ran off willingly and her whereabouts remain unknown.

She has not contacted friends or family since her disappearance. It’s unclear why she wanted to go to Canada and authorities aren’t sure if she ran off to start a new life under a different identity or if she met with foul-play.

Case Number: 96A05779

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to please contact: Detective Mark Wright of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office at 360-676-6650 or mwright@co.whatcom.wa.us

You may also contact the Whatcom Communication Dispatch Center at 360-676-6711.

On the afternoon of July 1, 2007 Alicia Minton dropped her children off with a friend and then ran a few errands, including a stop at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. She drove to Beaver Lake in Rogers, AK where she swam and rode a boat out into the lake. She hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

Shortly after her disappearance, her silver BMW 30i was found abandoned at the intersection of Second and Locust Streets in Rogers. Two weeks after her disappearance on July 15, 2007, her purse was found floating in Beaver Lake.

Rogers Police (RPD) don’t believe she left on her own accord. She didn’t take any belongings which indicates she didn’t plan on leaving.

The family of the missing mother say she wouldn’t have left her four children nor would she have missed her family’s birthdays and the holidays.

There’s been no phone call, although Alicia’s sister, Michelle Hurt, has hoped for one.

“Some days you want to pick up the phone and tell her about your day,” said Hurt of Omak, WA. “So many times I’ve thought she’d call.”

The grief never leaves Minton’s mother, Brenda Mathis, of Bentonville.

“It’s not like when somebody dies in your family and you can have a funeral,” Mathis said. “You can have some closure, with this you can have none. The least little thing can spark a memory, and it’s like it happened yesterday.”

Authorities believe they have identified the boat she took out onto the water and they also believe foul-play is suspected. Alicia’s ex-boyfriend, Randal Todd Greenway, was immediately considered a person-of-interest. He has a long rap sheet that dates back to 1993 and according to police the two had a rocky relationship. Alicia was supposed to visit Greenway the day she went missing.

In April, 2010, Greenway was arrested and plead guilty to drug charges. He was sentenced to twenty years and although police believe Greenway is responsible for Alicia’s disappearance, they don’t have a body or the evidence to prove it and her case remains unsolved.

Alicia was last seen wearing a red bikini covered with a red tank top, dark-colored shorts and pink flip-flops.

Steven Kraft, Jr., also known as “Steve or Stevie” by friends and family, was an 11-year-old who attended Hull Elementary School in Benton Township, MI. He vanished days after he completed a 5-day suspension for defended himself in a fight with another student. He was described as a good student and this suspension was his first due to a “bully”.

On the evening of February 15, 2001 Steve left his Benton Township home to walk his two dogs. When he didn’t return home for dinner his parents decided to wait a little bit longer before going out to search for him. It didn’t take too long before one of the two dogs came home by himself. He appeared excited and jumpy and led the parents to a nearby pond but when dive-teams searched the pond they didn’t find anything of significance. The other dog was found shortly after at a Blue Creek which is a local creek not to far from the pond.

This case is very similar to the disappearance of Erica Baker, a 9-year-old girl who vanished shortly after leaving her aunt’s Kettering, OH home to walk her dog. The dog eventually came home and seemed distressed. The cases are less than two years apart, both received a good amount of National attention and both remain unsolved.

Many reports came in about possible places to search including a pond behind Harbor Haven Ministries in May 2001 and another search in an area of woods near the Southwestern Michigan Regional Airport in November 2002. but no evidence was located and Steven Kraft’s whereabouts remain unknown.

According to reports, Steve lived on a dead-end street in Benton Harbor (Township) with little traffic, and was familiar with the area. He has relatives living near his home and was well-known to the neighbors. His parents have since moved to Hagar Township, Michigan. He has family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Lexington, Kentucky.

Date of Birth: January 11, 1989 Hair: Sandy Brown
Place of Birth: Milwaukee, Wisconsin Eyes: Green
Height: 5’2″ (at the time of his disappearance)
Weight: 100 pounds (at the time of his disappearance) Sex: Male
Race: Caucasian Nicknames: Steve and Stevie

Steven was last seen wearing a blue-green Charlotte Hornets basketball team jacket, a tan and white t-shirt, tan pants, and black boots.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has provided the public with an age-progressed photo of what Steven Kraft may look like at age 20.

Anyone with information regarding this cold case is asked to contact one of more of the following agencies –

Suzanne “Suzy” Lyall was last seen on the night of March 2, 1998, at approximately 9:20 p.m., when she left her shift at the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, NY. She was known to have boarded a Capital District Transit Authority bus heading to Collins Circle at the State University of New York (SUNY), in Albany, where she was a student. It is believed that she exited the bus at Collins Circle at approximately 9:45 p.m., which is the last known sighting of the young woman.

Mary Lyall, the mother of Suzy Lyall, told Crimesider: “When her dorm was checked, it appeared as if she was coming back. Her hair dryer was on the bed, all her personal items were still there&she had money on top of her desk, change.”

The morning after Suzy vanished, her boyfriend at the time, Richard Condon, contacted her parents to tell them that he couldn’t reach Suzy. “Her boyfriend told us that she was missing. I believe he said that Suzanne didn’t come home last night or something to that effect.” said Doug Lyall, Suzy’s father.

After some investigation, police discovered that an unidentified individual had used the Suzy’s credit-card the following day on March 3, 1998 at Stewart’s Store on the corner of Manning Boulevard and Central Avenue in Albany at approximately 4:00 p.m. When police viewed the stores security footage they noticed a African-American male come in around the same time the transaction took place. He was wearing a mid-length Carhartt-style jacket and a dark-colored Nike baseball cap with the company logo imprinted on the front. Some agencies refer to this possible witness as “Nike Man.” Police asked the young man to come forward but he never did nor did anyone come forward with his identity. – Click here to view a composite sketch of the person of interest.

According to NYPD, Suzy’s employee name-tag was discovered two months later in a grassy area near the visitors parking lot which is approximately 30 yards from CC bus stop.

Shortly before she disappeared she had spoken to a co-worker about a possible stalker. The co-worker would later tell investigators that Suzy didn’t appear to concerned/threatened with the thought of a stalker harming her. It is unknown if the potential stalker is tied to the unidentified male seen walking into Stewart’s Store.

Suzy’s parents refuse to give up. They created a website to keep their daughters case alive. One of the pages features a letter to her daughters – To the person who took Suzanne

Mary Lyall told Crimesider: “I want her back. I don t care how I get her back but I want her back”, when speaking about her daughter, Suzy.

The family along with the University of Albany raised $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and convictions of the person(s) responsible for her disappearance.

CLOTHING: Suzanne was last seen wearing a long black denim coat, a black shirt, and blue jeans. She was carrying a black book bag and had long hair past her shoulders . She was known to be an avid computer user and enjoyed spending time conversing online. She may also have been wearing a polished 14-karat gold fluted bow ring, a frog-shaped silver ring and a necklace with a silver medallion inscribed with a runic character that resembles the letter “S” (jewelry pictured above)

Marks/Scars: Suzanne has a light brown birthmark on her left calf, a mole on her left cheek below her ear as well as two moles, one on each arm. She also has a (surgical) scar on her left foot and wears contact lenses.

Photo of Kara Kopetsky which was taken shortly before her disappearance

Kara Kopetsky, born in Frankfurt, Germany on February 17, 1990, moved to Belton, Missouri, USA where she attended Belton High School.

Kara’s mother recalled her daughter’s excitement at going to school on May 4, 2007. It was senior picture day and she had woken up a little earlier that morning so she could put extra effort into her hair and appearance. She left for school that morning wearing one of her favorite outs which consists of a gray t-shirt with a white skull printed on it, dark jeans, a black-studded belt, a grey three-quarter sleeve sweatshirt, black and white checkered tennis shoes topped with her black leather hobo bag.

She arrived at school shortly after 7:30AM and within a half-hour she was called her mother to tell her she had forgotten her school books and asked her if she could bring them to her.

A little later at approximately 10:15AM students reported that Kara had gotten into a verbal argument with a teacher and was seen leaving the school premises at 10:30AM. Strangely, she didn’t inform any friends that she was leaving. It’s almost as if she just had a sudden urge to leave, or possibly was told by an unknown person(s) to meet and but to keep their meeting private.

When she didn’t return home or show up to her part-time afterschool job her parents started to become concerned. Their concerns turned to worry when, after multiple attempts, couldn’t reach her and realized that friends hadn’t seen her since the morning. They filed a missing persons report with Belton Police Department.

At first police didn’t know if she was abducted or if she was another teenage runaway. Family knew she didn’t runaway, nor would she have reason too. — Since Kara had called her mother to bring her books to her school, this gave police the idea that she did not have an intent on running away that day either. They interviews with other students and friends, and conducted multiple searches locally but no sign of the missing teen were ever found and she remains missing.

Kara’s parents had gone into her school locker days after she vanished to look for clues to what might of happened. They found makeup, clothes, money (debit-card), iPod and a new carton of cigarettes. Nothing to indicate where she may have gone.

One person-of-interest was a former boyfriend whom Kara had a relationship with. He was reported to be abusive and controlling towards her. One time, on April 28, 2007, Kara had left work and was abducted by him and while he was driving she had managed to open the door, jump out and escape. He was arrested and the following monday but released. Kara was fearful enough to file a restraining order on him and consequently she vanished the day before her court hearing regarding the restraining order was supposed to start. Did her former boyfriend convince the vulnerable teen to sneak a meeting? Right now the only people who know this answer is Kara and her boyfriend and she’s missing while he’s denying any contact with her.

Kara had a bank account with $150 dollars in it that had stayed untouched, which has become Kara’s former boyfriends alibi.

In February, 2012 reports of an abandoned house being connected to Kara’s disappearance surfaced.

According to Examiner, Russ Ptacek, Investigative Reporter for KSHB Channel 41 and a group of secret “Kara” sleuths have gone to a house and an abandoned building in search for clues on missing Kara Kopetsky. They found what they believe the Belton Police have missed. When Ptacek and the group searched the abandoned building, they found graffiti on the walls. One said “Kara is gone” and another says, “I did it.” They also went to the undisclosed home and in the basement, while the cameras were rolling, you can see cadaver dogs repeatedly sitting down, which is what the animals were trained to do if they smell human remains.

“The dogs were hitting on something, I think it is a possibility that, yes, she could be there,” said Kara’s mom, Rhonda Beckford.

However, when Belton Police were told of the possible discovery, they didn’t approve of the groups help and Kara’s parents have been told by police that they would possibly subpoena them for interfering with the investigation.

“The Belton MO Police Department has had conversations with the Cass County Prosecutor’s office about the possibility of utilizing the grand jury to question otherwise uncooperative potential witnesses,” said Police Chief James Person. “The Belton MO Police Department remains committed to the investigation into the disappearance of Kara Kopetsky.”

This is what the “secret group” has been worried about and told Ptacek they have handled over each piece of evidence to the FBI and Kansas City police, but have not given it to the Belton police as they don’t trust them to solve this case.

The Belton Police did show up at the house and according to Kara’s parents were there for about 40 minutes and never returned.

Kara’s parents don’t believe BPD are trying hard enough and could have put in more effort.

“I don’t believe you can do a thorough search in 40 minutes,” Rhonda Beckford told Ptacek. “Those dogs are hitting on something.”

If you have any information regarding this case is asked to please contact:

If you have any information concerning this person, please contact: Your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. You can also submit an online tip by going to the FBI Website where Kara’s case is listed.